Improvement in sabots for feathered projectiles



WOODBURY & GRAY.

,Sabpt forProjectiles. No. 35,965. Patented July 22, 1862.

Jaw/1707m- N.PETERS, PHOTO-LITNDGRKPHE$ WASHINGTON D C,

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

SEPH I. WVOODBURY, OF WEST ROXBURY, AND SOL. S. GRAY, OF BOSTON,

MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN SABOTS FOR FEATHERED PROJECTILES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 35,965, dated July 22, 1862.

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that we, J OSEPH P. WOOD- 3URY, of West Roxbury, in the county of Norfolk, and SOLOMON S. GRAY, of Boston, in the county of Suffolk,and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Projectiles for Rifled or'Smooth-Bored Gannon; and we do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the construction and operation thereof, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, making a part of this specification, in which- Figure 1 represents our improved shot with the sabot placed upon it, ready for putting into the gun. Fig. 2 represents the shot without the sabot. Fig. 3 is an end view of Fig. 1, and Fig. 4 is an end View of Fig. 2.

The subj cot-matter of our invention relates to the manner of constructing and using winged projectiles for smooth-bored and rifled guns; and it consists in employing with the same an elongated cylindrical sabot, made of paperpulp or other similar substance, which fills the spaces between the wings and forms with the shot a solid cylindrical mass, which fits the bore of the gun, which, by its upsetting or compression endwise from the explosion of the gun, is expanded and fills the bore of the gun and stops windage; and, if rifled, takes the grooves and imparts rotation to the pro jectile.

In the firing of obliquely-winged shots the tendency of the gases from the discharge, in rushing past the wings of the shot, is to put it in rotation in a direction opposite to that which would be imparted by the wings in passing through the air. When this takes place it prevents accurate firing. This is entirely prevented by the employment of a sabot which entirely envelops the wings and excludes them from any such action of the gases.

In the employment of a sabot with a winged shot of the form shown, where thewings are curved in a radial direction there is a liability that the sabot, from the force of the discharge, will be so firmly compressedupon the shot that portions of it may adhere to the shot after it is discharged, and. thus damage its flight. To avoid this difficulty, the rear end of the sabot,which covers the rear end of the shot,is made with a hole at the center, which,

in connection with other properties of construction, to be hereinafter explained, affords an adequate remedy.

In the drawings, A represents the body of the shot, which is made of the form shown,

with oblique curved wings,for acting upon the air in its flight,to give it rotation. The wings are made smaller in external diameter than the head of the shot,to permit the sabot to entirely inclose them.

B is a sabot, made of paper-pulp or other similar substance, which, in its interior, is made of a form to fit onto the wings and rear part of the shot closely; and its exterior is made cylindrical and of the proper size to fit the bore of the gun. At the rear end it is closed behind the wings, excepting the hole 0 at the center, and made of sufficient thickness to withstand the explosion of discharge as it rests against the rear extremities of the wings, and also against the shoulder D ontheshot at its forward end. The hole 0 in the sabot serves to expose a part of the-shot directly to the force of the charge and relieves the sabot of a portion of the pressure. It also serves to weaken that part of the sabot in a radial direction, and enables it to break up into fragments more readily and detach itself from the shot, and it serves to apply the pressure of the gases to the same in an outward direction, which causes the sabot to leave the shot with certainty at the instant of leaving the bore of the gun, thus leaving the shot absolutely free (and without rotation, if fired from a smooth bore) to commence its flight. If fired from a rifled gun,the direction of the twist of the bore and of the wings should coincide.

What we claim as our invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The employment, in combination with a winged shot, of a sabot externally cylindrical and fitting the gun, and enveloping and inclosing the wings, and made with a central aperture, 0, for detaching the same, substantially as described.

Boston, February 6, 1862.

JOSEPH P. WOODBURY. SOLOMON S. GRAY.

WVitnesses:

W. Sr. 0. REDMAN, WM. 0. HIBBARD. 

